Headless mode lets you run a Multilogin browser profile through automation without opening a visible browser window. Use it when you want browser automation to run in the background through API scripts, Script runner, or CLI.

When to use headless mode

Use headless mode when you want to:

• Run browser automation without opening visible browser windows
• Reduce screen clutter when running several automated tasks
• Use fewer interface resources than visible browser sessions

Before you start

Make sure you have:

• A Multilogin browser profile
• Access to browser-profile automation
• A Selenium, Puppeteer, or Playwright script
• The profile ID
• The Multilogin desktop app open
• Postman or Multilogin CLI configured if you use Script runner

Choose how you want to run headless automation

API or your own script – set headless_mode=true in the Start Browser Profile request

Postman Script runner – add "is_headless": true to the request body

Multilogin CLI – add the headless value to the --profile-id flag

Preparations before using headless mode

You can use headless mode through your automation script, Postman Script runner, or Multilogin CLI. Not sure where to start? Read the steps below.

Step 1: choose the automation framework

Follow the article and make a decision which framework may be the best for your use case: How to choose the best automation framework

Step 2: make a script or use the reference script

You will need to create a script, which will connect to the Multilogin API. It will also use GET Start Browser Profile endpoint. Don't know how to write it? We have reference scripts, which you can use and edit accordingly. 

Reference scripts:

• Selenium automation example
• Puppeteer automation example
• Playwright automation example

Step 3: enable headless mode in the endpoint parameter

Find GET Start Browser Profile endpoint in your script (or the reference script). For example, in Selenium reference script you may find the endpoint:

`https://launcher.mlx.yt:45001/api/v2/profile/f/${folder_id}/p/${profile_id}/start?automation_type=selenium&headless_mode=false`

Change headless_mode=false to headless_mode=true. The endpoint will look the following way:

`https://launcher.mlx.yt:45001/api/v2/profile/f/${folder_id}/p/${profile_id}/start?automation_type=selenium&headless_mode=true`

After that, you can run it via IDE (software for writing and editing scripts), terminal/Command Prompt or our Script runner tool, which is available for Postman and Multilogin CLI. In the next chapters, you will learn how to use Script runner for that.

How to run the script via Script runner (in Postman)

Step 1: put the script in the Multilogin scripts folder

If you want to run the script via Script runner, you should put your script in the corresponding folder.

1. Go to the scripts folder in Multilogin directory:
   1. Windows: C:\Users\%username%\mlx\deps\scripts
   2. macOS: /Users/%username%/mlx\deps\scripts
   3. Linux: /home/%username%/mlx/deps/scripts
2. Paste your script there. E.g., it will be a script called profile.py

Step 2: install and configure Postman

In order to launch Script runner, you have to configure Postman. Follow the next article before the step called “Add the CookieRobot script”: How to launch CookieRobot using Script runner in Postman.

Step 3: edit the request body

After you configured and opened GET Start Script Runner endpoint in Postman, you need to edit the request body. It will look the following way:

{
    "script_file": "<string>",
    "profile_ids": [
        {
            "profile_id": "<string>"
        }
    ]
}

Here is what you need to do:

1. Replace the script_file value with the title of the script. In our case it is profile.py
2. Replace profile_id value with the ID of the profile you want to run. You can find it by following the article: How to copy profile IDs in Multilogin
3. Add is_headless parameter, and set its value to true

Your request will have the following structure:

{
    "script_file": "<string>",
    "profile_ids": [
        {
            "profile_id": "<string>",
            "is_headless": true
        }
    ]
}

Step 4: run the script

Click “Send”.

Check that headless mode works

If the setup works, the browser profile starts through automation without opening a visible browser window. Your script continues running the browser actions in the background.

How to run the script via Script runner (in Multilogin CLI)

Step 1: put the script in the Multilogin scripts folder

If you want to run the script via Script runner, you should put your script in the corresponding folder.

1. Go to the scripts folder in Multilogin directory:
   1. Windows: C:\Users\%username%\mlx\deps\scripts
   2. macOS: /Users/%username%/mlx\deps\scripts
   3. Linux: /home/%username%/mlx/deps/scripts
2. Paste your script there. E.g., it will be a script called profile.py

Step 2: launch and configure Multilogin CLI

Follow the steps from the article: How to use Script runner with Multilogin CLI.

Step 3: run your script

After you launched Multilogin CLI, you can run the script and configure the profile launch in headless mode. You will need to type start-script command with --script and --profile-id flags. Add :true after the profile ID to run it in headless mode. In the end, the command will be the following:

• Windows: xcli start-script --script <your script title> --profile-id <profile id>:true
• macOS/Linux: ./xcli start-script --script <your script title> --profile-id <profile id>:true

If headless mode does not work

Profile does not start

• make sure the Multilogin desktop app is open
• check the profile ID

Browser window still appears

• check that headless_mode or is_headless is set to true

Script runner does not start

• check your Postman or CLI Script runner setup
• make sure the script is in the Multilogin scripts folder